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Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Destiny

Rating for this game: 9.9

Happy Price: 69.99 (House of Wolves DLC)

Gameplay

The best way I can describe Destiny is take Halo, Call of Duty, Borderlands, and Mass Effect and put them into one game. You have the tight controls of Halo, the iron sights in Call of Duty, FPS RPG elements taken from Borderlands, and special power builds similar to Mass Effect. Oh yea, not to mention this game takes place in an open world with endless amounts of adventure to do with friends.Campaign: It is recommended that one does the campaign before entering multiplayer, because you will take your character into multiplayer that is used in the campaign. It's best to level that character up and upgrade weapons before entering that battlefield. That said, the Destiny story isn't all that great. You play as a guardian trying to protect Earth from four different alien races, whom in turn are also fighting each other for the right to take over the planet as well. You start on Earth where you deal mainly with the Fallen alien race and get a taste of the hive. You then go to the Moon, Venus, and Mars where you deal with the other 3 alien races. It all culminates to you defeating all of them, and Earth is saved. Very predictable. The adventure is undeniably fun however, and is worth the 10-15 hour campaign. It's a great way to learn the basics and how the classes work, and you will find which one suits your play style the best.

Multiplayer: This is where all the action is, and where I've spend most of my time. There is a lot to do regarding PvP and PvE. This game incorporates farming and loot in a FPS MMORPG, so you can imagine how fun this is with friends. Unlike Borderlands, teammates do not have to compete for loot. If an enemy drops something in the midst of battle, it is yours. PVP modes are set for the most part, but on the weekends there are exclusive modes that offer different modes of play. It provides fresh experiences every weekend and allows for the game to remain relevant. For example the Iron Banner takes the users actual level and weapon damage value to determine just that against another guardian. All other PVP multiplayer modes flatten these out, but players still get the unique benefits to each weapon. For example "bullets from this weapon ricochet off of walls"

Multiplayer Maps: I wasn't able to find one that I loved, but there isn't one that I hate either. You can see the Call of Duty and Halo clash happening here. Bungie maps typically have levels or planes to them, and they are structured and defined. COD maps don't typically follow a structure, there may be multiple assymetric planes in a map, and Destiny has this. It feels a bit strange to play a game that feels like Halo, but the maps feel like COD set in a Halo world. There is so much action going on with Grenades, Golden Guns, Invisible slashers and Hulk Smashes going on, that its not really a factor. The maps are still fun, but its always nice to have that one map you love in a game.

Classes: There are three classes to pick from when the game is started. The Tank, The Assassin, and the Mage. Offically they are called the Titan, Hunter, and Warlock. They each provide advantages in gameplay and suit different play styles. I played as the most boring but most effective class, the Defender Titan. My super is a bubbleshield that offers myself and teammates buffs. Compare that to wielding a sword, sending a superblast from your hands, a hulk smash, a golden gun, and throwing strange fire grenades. My bubbleshield with a heavy weapon has gotten me quite a few multikills, even though its not the most sexy super to have.

https://youtu.be/SrbWTXyjJHI?t=3m51s

Art

The art is top notch and AAA as would expect. There is an immense about of creativity. The Crota are probably the coolest race of alien and looks like a monster that belong in video games. I feel like there was some freedom with the art style and artists were able to create what they wanted.

Environments: This game takes place on 4 different planets. That is very difficult to do correctly from an art point of view. That means the moon has to feel like the moon, and the Earth has to feel like the Earth. Each planet feels different and credit has to go to the art team to achieve that. It doesn't feel like I played a game that had different planets and there was just a texture overlay tricking me the whole time, even though its possible that is what was happening.

Characters: The Hunter is undeniably the coolest looking character in the game. Just a badass looking assasin type of character that looks the part. They get capes and its fun to change them up, since its such a visible and defining part of the character The Titan is probably the least interesting but still has style. It would have been better if there was more emphasis on the shoulders or upper body area that would make it unique. The Warlock wears a trenchcoat type of thing which is also cool, it reminds me of Neo from the Matrix and has the same effect as the Hunters cape.

Conclusion

There is so much to do in this game that its impossible to even write about all of it. I did not even get into the raids which are done when your character is completely leveled up. Everything from top to bottom in this game is great. Art, gameplay, sound, social activity, it highlights all the great things video games can do and executes on them. It's not the MMORPG that WoW is, but its still great. In my opinion this is the best game made in the last 5 years and one of the top games of all time.